Am 26.09.2014 19:57, schrieb Warp:

> "Argument from ignorance" does *not* mean something like "you are
> just making that claim because you don't know enough about the
> subject in question" (even though the fallacy is a bit unfortunately
> named, and may give that impression).

I suspect that the original term, like many of the fallacies' names, was 
pure latin: "argumentum ab ignorantia", literally meaning "argument from 
non-knowledge", and that it was poorly "anglicanized" later.

Alternatively, it may have been "anglicanized" at a time when the 
meaning of "ignorance" was closer to the original latin word, rather 
than the "not knowing shit" meaning it seems to be used for nowadays.

>> But you're right indeed: Aliens can't be discarded. Nor have they been
>> confirmed to have set on this planet (or even come into its vicinity) to
>> this date.
>
> As the original discussion I was referring to in my previous post was
> about the origin of life on Earth, while aliens cannot be definitively
> discarded, it seems highly unlikely (and, ultimately, it just needlessly
> shifts the question of the origin of life to another planet).

That's indeed Occam's Razor at its best.

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